Combining Optical and Radar Satellite Imagery to Investigate the Surface Properties and Evolution of the Lordsburg Playa, New Mexico, USA
Driven by erodible soil, hydrological stresses, land use/land cover (LULC) changes, and meteorological parameters, windblown dust events initiated from Lordsburg Playa, New Mexico, United States, threaten public safety and health through low visibility and exposure to dust emissions. Combining optic...
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doaj-fc381a58c7bb4fc38f05702b4ad661c02021-09-09T13:55:12ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922021-08-01133402340210.3390/rs13173402Combining Optical and Radar Satellite Imagery to Investigate the Surface Properties and Evolution of the Lordsburg Playa, New Mexico, USAIyasu G. Eibedingil0Thomas E. Gill1R. Scott Van Pelt2Daniel Q. Tong3Environmental Science and Engineering Program, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USAEnvironmental Science and Engineering Program, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USAUSDA—Agricultural Research Service, Big Spring, TX 79720, USADepartment of Atmospheric, Ocean and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USADriven by erodible soil, hydrological stresses, land use/land cover (LULC) changes, and meteorological parameters, windblown dust events initiated from Lordsburg Playa, New Mexico, United States, threaten public safety and health through low visibility and exposure to dust emissions. Combining optical and radar satellite imagery products can provide invaluable benefits in characterizing surface properties of desert playas—a potent landform for wind erosion. The optical images provide a long-term data record, while radar images can observe land surface irrespective of clouds, darkness, and precipitation. As a home for optical and radar imagery, powerful algorithms, cloud computing infrastructure, and application programming interface applications, Google Earth Engine (GEE) is an invaluable resource facilitating acquisition, processing, and analysis. In this study, the fractional abundance of soil, vegetation, and water endmembers were determined from pixel mixtures using the linear spectral unmixing model in GEE for Lordsburg Playa. For this approach, Landsat 5 and 8 images at 30 m spatial resolution and Sentinel-2 images at 10–20 m spatial resolution were used. Employing the Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) techniques, the playa’s land surface changes and possible sinks for sediment loading from the surrounding catchment area were identified. In this data recipe, a pair of Sentinel-1 images bracketing a monsoon day with high rainfall and a pair of images representing spring (dry, windy) and monsoon seasons were used. The combination of optical and radar images significantly improved the effort to identify long-term changes in the playa and locations within the playa susceptible to hydrological stresses and LULC changes. The linear spectral unmixing algorithm addressed the limitation of Landsat and Sentinel-2 images related to their moderate spatial resolutions. The application of GEE facilitated the study by minimizing the time required for acquisition, processing, and analysis of images, and storage required for the big satellite data.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/17/3402spectral unmxingoptical imagerySAR imageryGoogle Earth Enginehydrologyplaya |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Iyasu G. Eibedingil Thomas E. Gill R. Scott Van Pelt Daniel Q. Tong |
spellingShingle |
Iyasu G. Eibedingil Thomas E. Gill R. Scott Van Pelt Daniel Q. Tong Combining Optical and Radar Satellite Imagery to Investigate the Surface Properties and Evolution of the Lordsburg Playa, New Mexico, USA Remote Sensing spectral unmxing optical imagery SAR imagery Google Earth Engine hydrology playa |
author_facet |
Iyasu G. Eibedingil Thomas E. Gill R. Scott Van Pelt Daniel Q. Tong |
author_sort |
Iyasu G. Eibedingil |
title |
Combining Optical and Radar Satellite Imagery to Investigate the Surface Properties and Evolution of the Lordsburg Playa, New Mexico, USA |
title_short |
Combining Optical and Radar Satellite Imagery to Investigate the Surface Properties and Evolution of the Lordsburg Playa, New Mexico, USA |
title_full |
Combining Optical and Radar Satellite Imagery to Investigate the Surface Properties and Evolution of the Lordsburg Playa, New Mexico, USA |
title_fullStr |
Combining Optical and Radar Satellite Imagery to Investigate the Surface Properties and Evolution of the Lordsburg Playa, New Mexico, USA |
title_full_unstemmed |
Combining Optical and Radar Satellite Imagery to Investigate the Surface Properties and Evolution of the Lordsburg Playa, New Mexico, USA |
title_sort |
combining optical and radar satellite imagery to investigate the surface properties and evolution of the lordsburg playa, new mexico, usa |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Remote Sensing |
issn |
2072-4292 |
publishDate |
2021-08-01 |
description |
Driven by erodible soil, hydrological stresses, land use/land cover (LULC) changes, and meteorological parameters, windblown dust events initiated from Lordsburg Playa, New Mexico, United States, threaten public safety and health through low visibility and exposure to dust emissions. Combining optical and radar satellite imagery products can provide invaluable benefits in characterizing surface properties of desert playas—a potent landform for wind erosion. The optical images provide a long-term data record, while radar images can observe land surface irrespective of clouds, darkness, and precipitation. As a home for optical and radar imagery, powerful algorithms, cloud computing infrastructure, and application programming interface applications, Google Earth Engine (GEE) is an invaluable resource facilitating acquisition, processing, and analysis. In this study, the fractional abundance of soil, vegetation, and water endmembers were determined from pixel mixtures using the linear spectral unmixing model in GEE for Lordsburg Playa. For this approach, Landsat 5 and 8 images at 30 m spatial resolution and Sentinel-2 images at 10–20 m spatial resolution were used. Employing the Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) techniques, the playa’s land surface changes and possible sinks for sediment loading from the surrounding catchment area were identified. In this data recipe, a pair of Sentinel-1 images bracketing a monsoon day with high rainfall and a pair of images representing spring (dry, windy) and monsoon seasons were used. The combination of optical and radar images significantly improved the effort to identify long-term changes in the playa and locations within the playa susceptible to hydrological stresses and LULC changes. The linear spectral unmixing algorithm addressed the limitation of Landsat and Sentinel-2 images related to their moderate spatial resolutions. The application of GEE facilitated the study by minimizing the time required for acquisition, processing, and analysis of images, and storage required for the big satellite data. |
topic |
spectral unmxing optical imagery SAR imagery Google Earth Engine hydrology playa |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/17/3402 |
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